Published 4:00 am, Saturday, February 19, 2005

A landmark deal to protect more than 80,000 acres of stunning Central Coast property surrounding Hearst Castle became final Friday, ending more than six years of negotiations.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office said that the state, Hearst Corp. and private groups had closed escrow on a conservation plan for the historic 82, 000-acre Hearst Ranch near San Simeon in San Luis Obispo County. It marks one of the largest coastal conservation accords in state history.

"The dramatic nature of this agreement is exceeded only by the vision for the state's future and the value for the people that it provides," Gov. Schwarzenegger said in a statement announcing completion of the accord.

Under the agreement, Hearst gives up most of its development rights on 80, 000 acres east of Highway 1 in exchange for $95 million in cash and tax credits. Hearst still has the right to develop a 100-room hotel at San Simeon Village, as well as 27 luxury homes on 5 acre sites east of Highway 1.

Hearst also donated 1,500 acres of coastal land west of Highway 1 to the state and granted conservation easements on an additional 700 acres. The deal will allow for construction of 18 miles of the state coastal trail west of the highway.

Although some conservation groups and members of the local community supported the deal, other groups remain critical of it. They say it affords Hearst too much in the way of development rights and doesn't provide enough public access to the ranch or the coast.

"Never has the state of California paid so much and received so little in a land conservation deal," said Mark Massara, the Sierra Club's coastal program director. "It's unprecedented."

The property, still a working ranch, goes back seven generations in the Hearst family to 1865, when George Hearst, father of William Randolph Hearst, bought the first acres. Hearst Corp. has had elaborate plans for it over the years, including, in the 1960s, a plan for high-rise buildings, a developed harbor and a college.